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Fruit From The Opine Tree
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
Hollinger is apparently a minority investor in the start-up newspaper, the New York Sun that will publish Monday-Friday in Manhattan. The original New York sun published from 1883 - 1966 is most famous for printing Francis P. Church's "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial response to a letter from an 8 year-old girl. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I am a big fan of the underdog and I am pulling for the new Sun to find a niche and thrive. As far as underdogs go, my favorite scrappy little papers-that-do are the San Francisco Examiner and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Both papers were close to extinction following an unwinding of their JSA's. The December issue of AJR has a good story about the Star-Bulletin (though the AJR web site is down). For more info on the New York Sun, check out www.smartertimes.com.
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Last week I railed about other media outlets arrogantly ignoring scoops reported by competitors but I forgot about two huge stories that everyone should know about, but few do.
First, Walter Jacobson devoted several of his "Perspective" segments on how George Ryan's new budget cuts the $2 million operating budget from a group home for disabled children while elsewhere $2 million is used for a 6th entrance to a museum. It's quite an outrage, but unless you heard Walter's reports (or heard them recounted on The Buzz & Wendy show on WCKG radio as I had), you'd never know anything so evil was happening. Also, I can't understand why WFLD doesn't post transcripts to Walter's Perspective on their web site…God forbid you use proprietary content to drive traffic. Anyway, this story should have been picked up by the newspapers--who have better resources to do a more in-depth investigation. It was not. Walter did his best, but in response to the many angry e-mails he received, all he could do was tell the truth: What can be done? If a popular journalist can't get anything done, average citizens won't be able to do anything either. I couldn't help but think about a scene from the movie "Hannibal" where Lechter hangs a guy from a balcony as his entrails spill down to the street below. I thought about how funny it would be if evil license salesman George Ryan were the guy hanging there. I would no doubt develop severe stomach cramps from all the laughter. Yeah...I'm not TOO angry, am I?
The second story was national in scope. Bill O'Reilly has been railing against the 9-11 charities that were slow to release funds and deceptively targeted money to non-9-11 areas. O'Reilly got a lot of heat after suggesting that George Clooney and his Hollywood friends who helped raise more than $100 million for the United Way's "September 11th Fund" should prod the United Way to start releasing the funds. Then O'Reilly noticed that all the funds were not being earmarked to the victims of 9-11 as had been claimed. Everything hit the fan when the United Way spokesman told O'Reilly that there had always been 2 "September 11th" funds, with one going directly to the victims and one going to the general UW fund. This, of course, was a lie and a bad cover-up. The UW web site was quickly changed the next day to reflect this lie. Anyway, since there's no Government oversight of charities, we can all thank Bill O'Reilly for keeping them honest. But you wouldn't know that unless you watched the Fox News Channel.
Huh.
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Miami TV station WAMI has an interesting internet strategy that some webmasters could take lessons from. WAMI's web page is clear, concise, uncluttered and yet informative. It conveys their message without the use of Java, Flash animation, XML or even frames. In fact, the WAMI web site has so compacted its message that vertical or horizonal scrolling is not necessary--or even allowed. Amazingly, WAMI is able to support its site without using banner ads or advertising messages of any sort. A visitor to their site will find the WAMI mission statement, programming policy and news strategy encapsulated in an easy-to-read manner. Visit the WAMI web site at: www.wami.com.
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Do yourself a favor and pick up the Nov/Dec issue of the Columbia Journalism Review (www.cjr.org). It's their 40th Anniversary issue and aside from recounting the last 40 years through their eyes, they do a tremendous job of analyzing reporting in the aftermath of 9/11. Thorough, concise, informative. I can only hope every journalist in Chicago receives a copy of the mag from Santa.
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